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How to value & finance real estate property

by Adam Taggart

If you've not been watching our Real Estate investing webinar series, you're missing out on a wealth of learning.

Our last episode, Episode #3, received rave reviews. It was a 2-hour romp through the math involved in valuing real estate property. Russell Gray does an excellent job de-mystifying the numbers for newbies and the math-phobic, walking through the calculations and showing how virtually anyone can derive empirical answers to questions like:

What's a fair value for this property? Is it under/overvalued?

What's my expected return if I purchase this property?

What are the investments can I make that will have the biggest impact on increasing my equity? Or my income?

Don't forget to register for our upcoming Episode #4, in which Russ will build on his earlier material, explaining how to secure capital for investment property, how leverage can be used (prudently, not recklessly) to increase your returns, and what tax implications (and often benefits) to expect.

Spoiler alert: not much

by charleshughsmith

Eventually, prices rise to a level that is unaffordable to the majority of potential buyers, with demand coming only from the wealthy. That’s the story of housing in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and other desirable locales that are currently magnets for global capital.

Blog

But bungling badly as it does

by Chris Martenson

There's something we 'regular' citizens wrestle with that the elites never seem to: a sense of moral duty.

In a perfect world, we would honor our debts and obligations, every one of us. But the world is an imperfect place ,and moral obligation is something that almost never enters into the decision matrix of our society's richest. Or the banking industry.

Blog

Get ready for the return of declining home prices

by Brian Pretti

The more we look at today's data, the more it looks like that we are in a new type of pricing cycle — one that homeowners and housing investors have no prior experience with.

And the more we learn about the fundamentals underlying the current cycle, the harder it becomes to justify today's home prices on any sustained level. Meaning a downward reversion in home values is very probable in the coming years.

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It can't control the real economy

by charleshughsmith

This lemming-like belief in the power of the Federal Reserve generates its own psychological force field, of course; the actual power of the Fed is superseded by the belief in its power. We can thus anticipate widespread disbelief at the discovery that the Fed is either irrelevant or an impediment to the non-asset-bubble parts of the economy.

Blog

Do we really want to live through Housing Bubble 2.0?

by Adam Taggart

The airwaves are full of stories of economic recovery. One trumpeted recently has been the rapid recovery in housing, at least as measured in prices.

The problem is: a good portion of the rebound in house prices in many markets has less to do with renewed optimism, new jobs, and rising wages, and more to do with big money investors fueled by the ultra-cheap money policies of the Fed.

Do we really want to live through Housing Bubble 2.0?

by Chris Martenson

The airwaves are full of stories of economic recovery. One trumpeted recently has been the rapid recovery in housing, at least as measured in prices.

The problem is, a good portion of the rebound in house prices in many markets has less to do with renewed optimism, new jobs, and rising wages, and more to do with big money investors fueled by the ultra-cheap money policies of the Fed.

Overdependence on subsidies, debt, and unfounded optimism

by charleshughsmith

To answer this question, we need to understand that housing is the key component in household wealth. And, that Central Planning policies are aimed at creating a resurgent “wealth effect,” as follows: When people perceive their wealth as rising, they tend to borrow and spend more freely. This is a major goal of U.S. Central Planning.

Another key goal of Central Planning is to strengthen the balance sheets of banks and households. And the broadest way to accomplish this is to boost the value of housing. This then adds collateral to banks holding mortgages and increases the equity of homeowners.

Some analysts have noted that housing construction and renovation has declined to a modest percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP). This perspective understates the importance of the family house as the largest asset for most households and housing’s critical role as collateral in the banking system.